Sunday, August 16, 2015

In November of 1940, during a
time that fans and historians dub “The Golden Age of Comics”, Timely Comics—the forerunner of our
well-beloved and timeless Marvel Comics—introduced
a new character created by the writer-artist team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
in Marvel Mystery Comics #13. This character was an
alien officer of the law who could fly, wield cold and ice, teleport, and
create illusions to confuse his enemies—he was called Aarkus, or “The
Vision”. Several decades later, as Marvel
rose to take its place on the comics landscape, Stan Lee and writer Roy Thomas wanted
to add a new member to The Avengers, their premiere team of superheroes. At first, Thomas meant to reintroduce the
Golden Age Vision, but Lee had other ideas.
Together they created an almost altogether new character that they
debuted in The Avengers # 57: an
android hero swathed in red, green and gold, strong, fast, intelligent, who
could alter the density of his own biology to fly and pass through objects, and was gifted with a solar gem in his forehead that granted him unparalleled
firepower. It was this hero that Marvel fans have come to know as Vision. Fast forward to the present day. May 2015, Avengers:
Age of Ultron roars into theaters across the globe, and Marvel fans witness
the onscreen birth of one of their favourite heroes as Vision once again rises
to claim his place in the Avengers.

To be perfectly honest, I always
liked Vision, but I wouldn’t have ranked him among my favourite Marvel
characters. It wasn’t until he exploded
out of Helen Cho’s Regeneration Cradle that he rocketed up the list into my top
five. I’m a professed, passionate
Marvelite; ask anyone who knows me, they’ll tell you it’s true. With the exception of Guardians of the Galaxy (which I love but have torn feelings over,
but that’s a story for another time), as they have been released, every Marvel
movie has become my new favourite. And Age of Ultron was no exception. I watched—enraptured, with shining eyes and
clasped hands as Vision took his first steps on air and earth, and with words that
rallied his fellow Avengers he showed the pure, noble heart that beat in his
vibranium breast, and I realized that I had a new favourite Marvel hero.

Sorry, I tend to ramble when I’m
fangirling. Here’s a list of five
reasons to love Vision now.

1. First off, he’s stronger and more human
physically than he’s ever been
before.

In the comics, Vision was
android, created by Ultron to be a robot with the appearance of a human, with a
metal skeleton and synthetic skin.Thanks to Helen Cho and her Regeneration Cradle, Vision is much closer
in biological structure to a human, and a more accurate descriptor of him would
be “synthezoid”, as his body is comprised of synthetic human tissue cells bound
and fused with vibranium.Yes, the same
metal as Cap’s shield.That’s another
thing: Vision was made of ordinary metal before. Sure, strong metal—Ultron would have made
sure of that—but all the same, commonplace metal.But now, thanks to Joss Whedon and his
compatriots, Vision is now a child of the strongest metal on planet Earth.How’s that for strong?

2. Everything that
makes him unique now has solid, traceable background.

In the comics, in the beginning, Vision’s very
unusual, very unique features—on paper—would have looked like they were cobbled
together willy-nilly from Stan Lee’s personal wishlist of superpowers and
super-artifacts.But in Age of Ultron, all of Vision’s features
can now be traced somewhere.The solar gem in his forehead has now become
one of the mighty, mysterious Infinity Stones, the Mind Stone, no less; one of
the most powerful and dangerous Stones, especially in the wrong hands.(Still not sure you’re not in that category,
Tony, sorry…)Heck, the campy (no
offense, Stan) 80’s-style yellow cape, gloves and boots have become a gorgeous
Asgardian-style set of golden cloak and crimson boots and gauntlets, as if when
he formed them Vision was acknowledging Thor’s hand in his creation…and overall
Asgardian badassery.

And of course, Vision’s
unparalleled gifts with technology and the internet come from his previous
existence as our favourite UI and the Stark Industries kingpin, JARVIS. And what with that familiar voice and British lilt, how could we forget such origins? (Sigh.)
I love Vision, now more than ever, but a small part of me will always
miss JARVIS.

3. His personality has
gone from 2D to breathing, sparkling 3D.

I’ve read quite a lot of Marvel Comics, and while Vision is still as
noble and good now as he was then, he’s never
thrown out the occasional snarky or sarcastic one-liner.Thanks to JARVIS’s wry, dry humor and all
that cracking wise that ultimately comes from Paul Bettany, Vision would
probably be able to go toe-to-toe with Tony Stark in an all-out Battle of Wits,
Snark Edition…and who knows who’d come out on top?

4. His megalomaniac
family of one (Ultron) has just jumped up to five.

When he first
appeared, Vision’s sole creator was Ultron.(Shudder.)But now he has not
one, not two, but five parents!Who’d a’ thunk that?!?Ultron, obviously, he owes the design of and the vibranium in his body.Helen Cho and her
masterpiece of science, the Regeneration Cradle, provided the synthetic tissue
cells and fused him together.Tony Stark
and Bruce Banner are responsible for uploading JARVIS into his newly-formed
brain.(Can I get a woot-woot for the
Science Bros as parents?)And last, but
certainly not least, Thor provided the last mighty boost of Mjolnir-generated
lightning to propel him into life.Whew.Who doesn’t envy Vision his big, crazy, genius family?!?

5. Oh, and speaking of Mjolnir...he can lift it.

“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be
worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.”

Those are the
words graven with magic into the side of Mjolnir in the comics, and with one
exception, that is what they have always said. The number of people who have been deemed “worthy”
can be counted almost entirely on one hand: Odin, Thor’s grandfather Bor, Beta
Ray Bill (a Korbinite who is essentially their race’s Thor), Steve Rogers (when Thor
was down for the count), Loki (when Wanda Maximoff and Doctor Doom hit him with a
reversal spell that turned him good for awhile), and lastly, Jane Foster, the
new Thor. Who among us did not gasp or
laugh when Vision casually picked up Mjolnir and handed it to Thor, given the other Avengers’ efforts
to lift it earlier in the movie? Joss,
you may have done plenty of things in Age
of Ultron that not all of us might be happy with, but the one thing we can
all agree that you did absolutely right
was that you made the purest heart, the most wide-eyed soul worthy.

I am a very biased Marvel
fan, especially when it comes to my babies, and I will defend them with passion
and fervor at least equal to any of my fellow fangirls. Vision has always been one of Marvel’s best
and most unique characters, and in my opinion he’s deserving of much more love
than he’s gotten. I hope that for those
who don’t already love Vision for the pure-hearted, humanity-seeking synthezoid
he is, this article might help change that.

“Ultron created me to be perfect. He thought that meant less human, to be cold
and unfeeling. I wish to be perfect, but
I believe that means to be more human.”

Hi. I'm Galahad. But those that know me call me another name. Writing's in my blood, and I breathe in books so deeply that the characters become family, and their worlds, mine.
I'm a die-hard Marvel fangirl, and I claim dual citizenship in the USA and Middle-earth. I don't discriminate between tea and coffee; I love both, and family means more to me than anything else in the world.
(Photo source: Not Our Fight by Westling on Deviantart)